Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and South Korean steelmaker Posco have agreed to a partnership that will see FMG supply Posco with iron ore and green hydrogen.
At a meeting in Seoul on Dec. 14, Posco CEO Jeong-Woo Choi and FMG Chairman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest discussed the potential of a cooperative green hydrogen business. FMG has already set a carbon neutrality target of 2040. But Forrest and his executives have been jet setting around the world in recent months securing deals, such as this one with Posco, in support of its ambitious plans to build one of the biggest renewable energy portfolios in the world, delivering more than 235 GW of renewable capacit. That is five times the current capacity of Australia’s National Energy Market.
“FMG is a long-term contract supplier that has been stably supplying iron ore to Posco,” said Choi. “If competitive green hydrogen can be produced with cooperation between the two companies and is introduced to Korea, the era of green hydrogen in Korea will be accelerated.”
Part of the deal will see FMG use Posco’s premium steel materials, PosMAC, for all the solar and wind generation behind the green hydrogen FMG produces. As it stands then, Posco will import FMG’s iron ore to make the steel. The steel will then be supplied back to FMG’s solar developments to generate green hydrogen in Western Australia.
